Is there anything more soothing than watching Pavel groom his toe beans?
Reenie is now my official meeting proxy. I’ve let the team know to expect her. Good thing though that Skype doesn’t feature smell-o-vision.
Last bit of wisdom:
Morning routine
Pretty much… I’ve had to consciously stop looking at the news so much because it was a constant source of anger and anxiety.
Dr Strangework or how I grew to love remoting
Roko wanted all of us in the group to send him pictures of our home office setup. It’s going to be shown in the sprint review tomorrow. This is my contribution. At least I shaved yesterday :)
Global recoveries passed 100,000 but the pandemic ‘is accelerating’
The World Heath Organization said it had taken 67 days from the first reported case to reach the first 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000 cases, and only four for the third 100,000 cases.
As of March 24th, there were over 417,000 recorded cases.
Guide to self-isolation
Life goes on
Covid plague rages.
Tulips in the Parc still grow.
Peace can yet be found.
We are a dysfunctional family
Some people see the current covid-19 lockdowns as a way to build memories and spend quality time as a family. We see this, filled with dread, as a situation that can lead to murder or alcoholism.
As much as I love my son, he is being a giant shithead. Everything needs to be a confrontation. Everything needs to be yelled instead of spoken. We are, apparently, the most unfair idiots that walk the earth and exist only to pay for shit, frustrate him at every turn and make him angry. He, in our opinion, exists only to make stupid random noises, do whatever the hell he wants when he wants to, do nothing of what we actually ask of him and can’t grasp the simplest of concepts like don’t chew with your mouth open, close the light when you leave the room and leave the fucking cats alone.
So yeah.
We’ll either need lawyers or doctors, or both (definitively therapy) by the time this has cleared up.
Bring your work to cat, indeed
One of the big issues of working from home is discipline and motivation.
This does not help.
Neither does this, when you come back from the bathroom.
But at least the telecommuting memes are amusing:
Pandemic confinement, week 3
Ok, so it’s not an actual confinement, we’re still allowed to go out as long as reasonable precautions are taken – it would just seem that different people have different interpretations of what is reasonable in these… interesting times.
I’ve also managed to fix the slight oopsie I did to the media streamer PC. On the plus side, my storage space has tripled. I’ll need to order a 2nd 6TB HDD so that I can make a redundant copy, but at least we have one working version now.
Finally, it seems that all the parents are in agreement – it sucks to have kids out of school stuck at home.
[recipe] Chocolate weißbier tear-and-share breakfast loaf
320g all purpose flour
50g plus 1 tbs granulated sugar, divided
1 packet rapid rise yeast
180ml wheat beer
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 large egg yolk (room temperature)
60ml cup heavy cream (at least 35% fat content, room temperature)
1 tsp salt
45g softened butter
100g chocolate, chopped
Powdered sugar, optional
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook add the flour, 50g granulated sugar and yeast.
Add the beer to a microwave safe bowl, microwave on high for 20 seconds, test temperate and repeat until beer reaches between 50C-55C – see note. Add the beer to the stand mixer, mix until most of the flour has been moistened.
Add the vanilla then the yolks, one at a time. Add the cream and salt.
Building up speed, beat on high until the dough comes together and gathers around the blade. The dough will be very soft.
Add dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover and allow to sit at room temperature for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Add dough to a lightly floured surface, roll into an 18 x 24 inch rectangle.
In a small bowl stir together the softened butter and the remaining 1 tablespoons sugar. Spread the butter/sugar mix evenly on the dough.
Cut the dough into strips about 3 inches wide. Cut each of the strips into 4 to 5 rectangles, each should be about the size of a deck of cards. You should have between 12 and 15 pieces. Sprinkle the pieces with the chopped chocolate, then stack up each one on top of another in a tower. Lay the stack into a loaf pan, like placing books on a shelf.
If making the loaf the night before, cover and allow to rise in the fridge for 12 hours. Reheat the oven to 350F/175C, allow the loaf to come to room temperate while the oven is pre-heating. Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.
If making the day of, preheat oven to 350F/175C, allow to sit at room temperate until doubled in size, about 20 minutes .Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from loaf pan, sprinkle with powdered sugar prior to serving.
A note about yest and temperature:
55C–60C – Yeast cells die (thermal death point).
50C–55C – Water temperature for activating yeast designed to be mixed with the dry ingredients in a recipe.
40C–45C – Temperature of water for dry yeast reconstituted with water and sugar.
38C or lower – When yeast is mixed with water at too low a temperature, an amino acid called glutathione leaks from the cell walls, making doughs sticky and hard to handle.
27C–32C – Optimum temperature range for yeast to grow and reproduce at dough fermentation stage.